Matt Damon Brings Elysium Nonsense to Letterman

Try as I may to give the upcoming Neill Blomkamp sci-fi actioner Elysium the benefit of the doubt, the more I hear from star Matt Damon, the more I stand convinced the film could have just as easily been titled Occupy Space Station. Promoting the project on the Late Show with David Letterman this week, Damon joked about his 2012 flop Promised Land, a film produced on the presumption that American audiences love a good yarn railing against oil fracking. "You and I are the only ones who saw it," he told Letterman after the host claimed to have liked the environmental tale.

Naturally, when one movie preaching against the evils of capitalism and development fails, Hollywood tries and tries again. Damon describes the forthcoming Elysium as an attempt to cloak the social commentary of Promised Land in sci-fi garb. Truth be told, the tactic may work. The science fiction and fantasy genres boast a long history of controversial social and political themes going back to 1951's The Day the Earth Stood Still. Stick forehead ridges or antennae on a painted head and you can recast real-life tensions with alien stakeholders, lowering audience resistance to embedded ideas through making the players unreal.

Letterman turned serious on the topic of fracking, making the ridiculous claim that "water is disappearing from the planet [because of fracking], we've poisoned and drained the great aquifers underneath the great plains." Damon took the opportunity to tout his non-profit, which seeks "safe water and the dignity of a toilet for all, in our lifetime." The hand-wringing commenced.

Every 21 seconds, a child under the age of 5 dies because they lack access to clean water and sanitation.

The irony of Damon's concern takes shape when we consider his opposition to capitalism, development, and the free-market process. All of these things enable the world's poor to rise and enjoy the benefits of modern civilization.